Complaints & Reviews

overpayment refund

This company was over paid on a payoff of my traded vehicle. I have waitied patiently for over 45 days while I get nothing but rude coustomer service reps. No one seems to know what is going on in this company. They have the absolute worst customer service of any company I have ever dealt with. I have been dealing with this company for almost 5 years and I have NEVER had a satisfactory experience with thes people. No one can tell me if my refund has ever been processed or if it has been mailed. I was even told at one point, that my refund would be put back into my bank account within 72 hours. However, a week later, I was told that I was never told that. I even have the name of the agent who told me that. I was told that I was not allowed to speak with that agent to confirm. It seems that these people are giving me the run-around and telling me anything to get me off the phone, because I have called numerous time trying to get answers. I need answers!

The car we financed initially through HSBC was totaled out during the summer of 2010. After all the insurance and I paid the car, I had an overpayment due me. Like you, I was given the run around and was bounced around between insurance and customer service. I can say that their policy is that 30 days after the final insurance payment has been received, they take another 15 days to audit the account and ensure that the insurance company hasn't stopped payment on the check. After calling them daily upon day 46, I learn that I have a $20 late fee. Please explain to me how a car that was paid off in August has a $20 late fee assessed in September and I do not receive a bill in October. I ask to speak to accounting and am told that no one can speak with accounting directly; an email is sent and accounting responds within 48 hours. Of course, there was never a response. I finally started demanding that when accounting is emailed, to include me on the email and gave my email address. When asked why, I replied "for my documentation so that when I present everything to the state attorney general, FTC, and my attorney, I have more complete notes. Amazing how quickly the fee was waived, my check was issued, and was overnighted to me. I don't know what bothered me more: no department could see my entire account or the fact that I would hear the same voices but be given a different name. I do know that in another thread, someone posted the names of the bosses in charge. If you haven't received a resolution, the email pattern is the first initial and last name @ santanderconsumerusa.com (for example, [email protected]) and send an executive email carpet bomb (see The Consumerist website for more information).

bogus company

The CEO of this company, Thomas Dundon. Nice to know he is listed for having one of the most expensive houses in Dallas, at OUR expense while they rip us off with bogus charges on our accounts while he lives in his 11 Million dollar house with indorrs slides and gyms for his kids...

> quoted from article
36 // Thomas Dundon
$11, 384, 440
Tom Dundon and his wife didn’t set out to build one of the most remarkable homes in Dallas. They really just wanted a great place for their growing family to enjoy. They wanted a place the kids would want to invite other kids over to, so they would get more time with them. That’s what they told Mark Molthan, the designer who built their previous two homes when they looked at the raw land that constituted their little plot.

Molthan took that cue and ran with it, building less a home than a vacation resort. It features the following: a swim park, indoor-outdoor tennis courts, a baseball infield, a dance studio, an automated batting cage (one of their youngest boys was hitting whiffle balls over the fence at their previous home by the time he was 4), a putting green, a go-cart track, a gym, and an indoor and outdoor slide from the second to the first floor. There’s also a stocked lake.

“Mark just did an incredible job, on time and within the budget, ” Dundon says. “We didn’t plan on this being so prominent from Northwest Highway. When we saw the frame up in the winter when the trees were bare, we realized how big it looked from the street, and we said, ‘Oh, crap.’ We’re working on growing in the landscaping so it won’t stand out so much.”

Dundon made his money building and then selling Drive Financial Services, a sub-prime auto loan company that was acquired by Banco Santander Central Hispano SA for $636 million in cash in late 2006. Dundon is still an executive officer with the company.

not applying payments

We have two different vehicle loans under Santander. Absolutely never a late payment, they are all made via automatic bank draft. One was paid off by a dealership in September 2010. Santander cashed the check, and put it on a wrong account. So far, for two months Santander refuse to listen to us when we send them copies of the check for $14982.06 that THEY cashed. We finally talk to someone who seems like they know what is going on, as we find out that they had applied the CashOff/TradeIn to the current vehicle we own. So he says he would take care of it. So a week later, we are now getting calls that the Current Vehicle is TWO months late. Didn't we just do this??! Seems they have deducted ALL recent account activity from the current vehicle, as opposed to taking the wrongly applied trade-in check of $14982.06 and cashing out the first vehicle which should have been done two months ago. This is so aggravating when we pay everything exactly on time and they cannot even appropriate their funds properly. And they harass us over the phone without any offer of trying to resolve their own screw up. Monstrous. Sign me up for the class action lawsuit.

My auto loan was transferred from Triad to Santander, but instead of applying my payments to my new Santander account number, they continued to apply payments to my old Traid account. So after three months of looking like I never made a payment on my Santander account, they repossessed my car. And I have never been late on one payment. To make matters worse, when I called the next morning to resolve the matter, they were rude to say the least, instead of being apologetic. Rude and just plain ignorant customer service personnel is the only way to put it as well as a totally incompetent company.

At the start of an auto loan with Citibank, I slid 2 months to the end of my loan as I retired and wanted everything setup with retirement. Now they passed my loan to these fools who I have to keep watch on. They always send late statements so payments could be late, which I have never had one late yet except the first one to them when they switched us. Now they tell me my loan came due in November. with 2 payments left they do not send anything to me. I have to CALL and send to a PO BOX #!! these thieves are going to try and take my truck after 68 payments on some sort of default thing in their records.. it's out right thieft!! And noone is shutting them down!! this is America today!! taken over by the largest Spanish banking system!! There is no more justice in america unless your illegal at something.

bullies and liars! horrible customer service

We unfortunately have 2 loans with Santander. 1 was from Triad the other from CitiFinancial. Their Customer Service reps are rude, nasty, abusive and I have never called twice and received the same answer. Even on their policy.
PS here is the kicker to the story if you decide to hang in to the end. (It's a long one but worth it) When I went to make the money gram payment, the women behind the counter said "Santander? I hate those people! I feel sorry for you." to which the lady behind me online said "Santander? That company is a joke! I never can get a straight answer from those people. and they are so rude." This amusing conversation about how their reputations preceeds them went on for 20 minutes. but I digress, here's my story.

Here are some of the BS lies I have been told by this company.
1. They are not allowed to give out or send you your new Acct number. You have to call and make payments. — 3 calls later, I found out this is untrue and illegal. I now have my acocunt number.
2. There is no place to pay the account, you have to call and make the payment. — Recently found out this is just so the rep can get credit and get their commission. 2 months later I found out that yes. You can go and send your payment via money gram at WalMart. We had bill pay with CitiFinancial. Now, apparantly they do not take debit or checks Moneygram is the only way to pay. (what?!) 1 week ago I found out that this is also a lie. They block out your ability to pay with check or debit card so you have to call and give the reps credit. After calling back, the rep said, we do accept moneygram long story short, we pay with money gram. Does all this not sound like it is making sense? We live it and it doesn't make sense to us either.
3. Even if you are paid up, Santander has the right to repossess your car if Management sees fit. — Seriously? How does that work?
4. I have called 6 times for the same problem.
TUES - CF and I had an arangement for medical issues that I have. I called Santander and asked if they did as well. I was treated like crap. The rep spoke down to me, over me, put me on hold and then said yes we have a program. I will email you the information. click. ummmm did you just hang up on me too?
THURS - 2 days later I called back to say I hadn't found the info. He says We don't have a program like that. I don't know who told you that. ps you owe 1058 on your account. WHAT? They didn't honor anything from CF without warning and charged me 3 months and late fees. Ok so now what? The rep was so belligerent I finally had to say Let me get my husband and you can talk to him the way you are talking to me... and he tried to. My husband made arrangements with him.... and then the calls started.
SUN There is this Psycho rep, Ms. Freeman called 10 times a day, left threatening messages. I called the company, spoke to another person. He was very nice and helpful. He said ignore the calls, they have to call until the payment is fulfilled. When I asked why all the mis info he said that there were some CF reps working with them and they are still adjusting to new policy. Iverified that I would be making a 525 payment at the end of the week. He said, your payment is 307 on Fri. I said are you sure? I thought it was 525. He verified that it was 307 and walked me through all of the payments with dates and amounts. okay. maybe I got it wrong. wrote it down next to the other person's info.
TUES EVE (7 days from when this started) My husband comes in the office and says 'you've got to listen to this.' Ms. Freeman keeps calling. leaving aggressive msgs on the house phone and the cell. Way beyond the 'this is an urgent matter' Offended, I call back. I get a wonderful woman named Ms. Jordan. I am fuming at the msgs we just got. that I started to get a little agitated on the phone. I said leaving those kinds of messages were inappropriate and uncalled for. We are in communication, not hiding from you guys. She said "no matter if you are a day late or a year late, noone has the right to talk to you that way." She is what a rep should be. She even gave me an 800 number to call to file a complaint against Ms psycho rep. It may have been rhetoric but it calmed me down and made me feel better. We talked for over an hour. She cleared up all of the mis info I had been given. She said that what I actually owed was 370 not 307 or 525. (geesh, this is the third amount if you are keeping score at home but it won't be the last!) I specifically asked her if the car was being repossessed,. She said no. That's why you are making these arrangements. If it wasn't fufilled by Nov 19 then they would send someone after that.
FRI 8 AM — Go to make the payment to fufill my obligation Friday 8 am. Website will not take my check or my debit number. Call immediately. phone won't take either. Got a rep on the line who told me that the website and the phone does not recognize checks or debit cards from certain banks (I have Wachovia. not exactally a mom and pop bank). She said the only way I could pay was thru moneygram. I told her, I couldn't get there today before it closed. I will go in the morning which would be Saturday. The rep gave me all the info and said it would be fine. I asked her why I had so much trouble all week. Her response was I don't know. try calling back... annnnyway...
SAT, 9 am. money gram place opens at 10. getting ready to go. Ms. Freeman calls. AGAIN. This is the call that nearly gave me a nervous breakdown. I do not have a temper. After working in the customer service industry for so long, knowing what they go thru, I neeeever loose my cool with a rep. Never! MS. Freeman was so confrontational. I feel like I was bullied, lied to, harrassed, insulted, disrespected and violated. If I had a rep talk to a customer like this, they would have been fired! (PS. Both my husband and I have over 8 years CS MGMT experience) By the end, I have never screamed so loud, I was shaking. The moneygram place is 5 minutes from my house, I was so furious, I drove around for an hour because I was shaking so bad and so furious I had no idea where I was going. Without all the gory details (it was a long conversation. Here's what happened in a summary.
The tone of the conversation was aggressive to say the least. I told her that I had already made the arrangements and was on the way to make the 370 payment. She said "370? that's not good enough and how do I know you are going. you lied about making a payment yesterday." um excuse me? I said I spoke to someone yesterday and have been in communication all week. I have already made these arrangements. Oh, AND she tells me that I made up the 370 number I actually owe 1400 today. 'so I hope you are going with that in your pocket.' and that's when it began. I am now upset agitated and other things so I'm starting to get loud. I said this is bull [censored]. I already spoke to Ms. jordan this is what we arranged. The whole time her saying mmhmm, yeah, mmhm as in yeah right. She cut me off started aggressively talking over me again. She said "Ma'am these conversations are recorded so I suggest you tell the truth." as she is talking over me and bullying me. Not letting me speak. Now I am in the how dare you portion of the conversation which lead me into 'I am so sick of your company. I never get a straight answer, every time it is a different story different amount. I can't take it anymore! (ps now i'm crying angry tears) Ispoke to 6 people this week and...'"you did not. you only spoke to 2 people I see it right here." No I didn't! I said I have the name and info of everyone I spoke to "."no you only spoke to A and B."I said that is not true. I spoke to someone just yesterday and ms,. so and so is the person who told me I only owe 370!" "I don't know why they would tell you that. if you don't pay 1400 today, your car will be towed this afternoon" "What?! I specifically asked they said not until noverber 19 (PS This all happened 10/30)
if I didn't keep to the arrangement and the deadline hadn't even happened yet!" She said ma'am they have been trying to find you for the last month and they are on their way right now. "(in hindsight, I don't believe this. They would have taken the car by then) I finally said I have had enough! I am done and hung up. She called right back, spoke to my husband and said I had no right to hang up on her! are u kidding? My husband, also a former Customer service MGR, asked to speak to her supervisor. She said she didn't have one because she is a manager (load of crap. Everyone works on a team. The Managers do not make these types of calls. AND there is always someone handling escalations) He told her 'I have been on the other end the whole time, you are usetting my wife. I don't know why your company cannot keep their story straight." Then she told my husband how we are trying to get out of paying and that I am making up stories... That's when I left.
If we were hiding from the company fine, but we had been in constant contact.
Why would I have fired her? 1. for harassment. You do not call customers liars and abuse them, 2. you are supposed to calm the customer down and resolve issues not egg them on to the point of escallation, 3 and most important she had been yelling and berating me the whole time. you do not yell at a customer and egg them on no matter what. They use scare tactics to get you to pay with whoever is calling because the pay is such crap for them and they need the credits to get their commission. That is sad.
Want more?
Also have a Nissan with these jokers whose loan was bought from triad. last year, December payment was made to triad and was returned because unbeknownst to us, triad was bought by Santander. We called Santander, the rep said that they would waive December payment because of the confusion and it was not our fault (found out later it was a triad rep. should have known, they were nice) Last month I call to get the payout info for the car. The rep says we do not have any info of a Nissan loan for you. Really? here is my account number. used to be a triad loan? she said if your loan is with triad then you need to call them. this is santander. yes. your comapany bought triad out last year,. I just need the payout info.' 'I don't see a nissan loan only a jeep.' is there someone else I can talk to. like your supervisor""she said hold on. came back and told me that they don't have information for triad loans I need to find the last number for triad and call them back' okay done with that. This week, I get my bill and there is a 120 late fee. WTF is this?? We have been on time every month. Call and get a rep who didn't look up my account for the first 10 minutes we were on the phone. Then she said, oh there was a missed payment in December last year. That's what the late fee was for' 10 a month for the last year! I explained to her that was when triad took over we had that month waived. you can see how every month the payment is a week early. Why are you telling me now? "30 minute phone call to get the 120 waived. She said, I'll see what I can do, call back in 2 days. (I have heard that song before. Translation: I don't know what to do so I will just pacify you with an answer) Well they beat me to it. Tonight, I got a call from a glynesha who said"your account is past due 452 how are you going to pay this today?' I said I'm not, I already made arrangements yesterday with Joyce to pay that on Monday. and then the aggression began. except by now I am used to it. she said you know you owe this money' I said. yes and I will pay on monday which is a full week before my due date. But this money cannont be ignored you are blah blha blah..."yes I know. and the arrangemnet has been made for monday." "(huff) well that's a whole weekend before you pay you need to pay now." I said"I already made the arrangments and I am planning to stick with them." "Well there is payment information on your acount. It is best if you make the payment arrangement with me." I said "no I don't feel comfortable with that." (huff) so WHEN are you going to make these arrangements, huh? It is already late? HOW are you going to do this."I said the same way we do it every month, through bill pay. besides, my husband takes care of this account. I don't know much about it" She again referenced my payment account info and was starting to egg me on to pay NOW! I completely interuppted her before I got upset and said "LOOK! here is what is going to happen. My husband takes care of the bill,. I do not have permission to authorize payment arrangements on this acocunt and neither do you. I am not authorizing any payments today is that clear?'" (huff) fine. have a nice da...)" and she hung up.

Please file a complaint with the FTC and contact your state's Attorney General's office and file a further complaint. If the state has a consumer fraud division, contact them also.

I have experienced similar interactions with Santander AND I am several months ahead on payments. Don't forget Citifinancial's role in this mess. They are very aware of the treatment their customers are receiving.

mortgage

My husband passed away in july 2010 and since our mortgage was in both names, I have requested 3 times that I get the mortgage changed over into my name only. I was told a sales representative would be calling me back to do the necessary application. Here it is now into november & I have not heard anything from them. I lost $1, 700 a month income when my husband passed away and am having to do everything on my own small income which bearly makes the mortgage payments. I don't want to loose my home, but I guess sovereign bank wants me to. Isn't there something that can be done about this?

sold my loan

I can't believe that good customers of yours are being treated so badly. Santander is nothing but a rip off.in the 21st century to be charged $10.95 a payment for each payment made on line is a rip off. I will do what I can to find some other lending agency with a little bit of class to work with. You people are the bottom of the barrel when it comes to customer relations. You should nevber have sold my account to theswe sharks. I made my payment every month for forty-four months only to be greeted with this injustice to a moral code of lending that should consider a good consumer and treat them properly.

horribad customer service and stupid people

I'm a pissed off car loan payer

Since santander has become the owner of my car loan I have had nothing but headaches from this # sucking douche bag resin company. They call me at all #ing hours of the day and night and when I try to add anything less than $100 to my account they keep telling me to go to western union. #ing scamming skum #ing trash #! Now they say I am somehow 80 days past due and they still won’t let me add money to my account over the phone! I think we all should get together and find a good class action lawyer so we can all sue the #ity # #ing # out of this #ing # bag of a bank!!! # you santander!!! # you!!!

unauthorized deduction

Santander recently bought our car loans from citi-financial and it has been one long nightmare. After dealing with this very questionable company we decided to payoff our loans. After the loans were paid off they took an additional payment of more than $500.00. We have been trying to get a refund since september. Today we were told a refund had been approved by it would take another 30-45 days to process. I really cannot see a refund coming. I have asked to speak to a supervisor, but was given the run around. The only way you can even get to a person is use the phone tree and tell them you are interested in establishing a new loan. I recommend that anyone who is having trouble with this company is to write a letter to the attorney general of texas where their offices are located and to the attorney general of your home state. This is an extremely dishonest company and at no time did we ever have an agreement with them to deduct monies straight out our checking account. If one of your loans is sold to this company, you should immediately find a way of refinancing it. This is a continuing nightmare.

My husband and I are going through the same thing as of right now! We paid off our loan & and our last payment was on 1/24. They deducted another payment on 1/28. They are still insisting it was never taken out even if it showes in our statment.

late charges, over charges

Mail payments to a po. box 20 days ahead of payment and it's still late.Then late charges and harrassing calls, at least 20 a day.Made same payment 3 times in one year on payment that was already paid.Set up arrangments with them, no one notes it on computer, then the next person wont work with you.Threatened repo of my vehicle for payment they say wasnt made over 2 yrs ago when i was with hsbc.Started researching and found out there are alot of people who who are dealing with same problems.Need a proper mailing address, and one customer service rep. to deal with.Do not do business with this company, beware seriously.Ps. now they want 15 dollars to make your payment on debit card, with no written notification.I will never do business with them again or for that matter hsbc also.

I am having similar problems with Santander. HSBC must have been bought out by them in Aug 2010. My car was due to be paid off in Sept. I paid my 9/2010 payment and still had a balance of $495. I have made every payment. Customer service first said they would look into it. I called again and was told that I bounced a check in 10/2004 and needed to send them bank statements for that month if that was not the case. I requested the statements from my bank and faxed them to Santander. Well now they say that is not the problem - I made a late payment due to fraudulent use of my bank account - had to close account and open a new one. As soon as that was done (about a week) I opened the new account and paid them. Can I really be charged $495 in additional interest for this? Sound like fraud to me! I have requested a statement of payments and when this additional interest occurred, but have not received anything from them. I have requested response to my letters to them in writing, but have received no response. I call them and call them and get a different answer every time I call. Who is this company? I need help! I have decided to pay them off and then take them to court to get my money back from them. Any class action suit would definitely interest me!

bought my account

I am currently in the us army, serving overseas in afghanistian, citi finacial sold my account to santander consumer usa. I was with citi financial since I bought the truck, never late on a payment. I called citi to get a payoff quote and was transfered to their number, and I was told that my payments were 20$ higher, still with out my knoweledge. I tried calling the costumer serivce and there hours on sunday is 7 am to 5 pm centeral time, and they were closed when I called at 0730 cst. If some one is willing to help me out please email me at [protected]@yahoo.com this is not right and i'm going to stand for it.

Maybe we all should try writing congress about this company or these companies rather because our headaches started with Citi finance and after they up and sold our account without any notice we are now being physically drained by this company Santander USA the last letter we received from Citi showed a balance of $3, 150. we have sinced mailed in 4 payments in the amounts of $400.00 the first an only statement we received from Santander showed a balance of 2, 800.00 excluding the last couple payments they have constantly harassed us about remodifying the balance an thats only another way to bleed more money out of us. they then sent a repo man to our house an they said we have a balance of $2, 117.00 its ridiculous an supposedly they have added the last 3 payments of $400.00 to the account but still we owe $2, 117.00 I have agreed to go ahead an remodify because we are just tired anything to end this with them.

MadMac My loan at citifinancial was sold to santander without notice from citifinancial. I was not late on payments but am now because of sending my payment to citifinancial .Citifinancial stopped sending statements to my address now santander says I have to show proof of who I am before they send me monthly statements.I have tried calling Citifinancial to get this taken care of, when I call them the automated system sends me directly to Santander.I would like to talk to a real live person not some programed nitwit without human emotion, like the ones working for Santander.

I am with this God awful company! I bought a carmy first time buying thinking it would help build mycredit to buy the car I really want and a house. I went to appy for a loan and they told me that santander had reported me late 6 times and i had the car for 7 months and have never been late. How unethical is this. I called and they would not give me any information they referred meto ASC what ever that was.I called and asked for a schedule she said that the payments were current and that was an error on the credit bureau!!! Not quite sure. Anyway I never recieved the literatue i requested in the mail and it has been over 3 months. What do I do?

fees

My husband and I are one of the unfortunate who had an auto loan with CitiFinancial Auto that has recently be bought out by Santander Consumer USA. I have read several complaints on here, so decided to add our current situation.

Unlike several others, who said they didn't know about it until after the fact, CitiFinancial sent us a letter in the mail informing us of the change, that came the same day we got our first statement from Santander. After checking their website, I was irritated to discover the only way to pay them without incurring a fee (and being sure the payment was posted on time) was to enroll in their auto pay. I don't generally have an issue with that (we have other bills set up that way) but was still annoyed that we didn't seem to have options.

At any rate, I enrolled in the auto pay, first payment went out 9/18, the day it was due. A few days later it cleared our checking account so I didn't give it a second thought. A few days ago I received the next statement which said we owe the regular payment plus a $25 fee. What was that for?

I logged into our account and saw next to last month's payment "return - frozen". I double checked our bank account through their website and saw they cleared the payment on the 20th. Since the 18th was a Saturday, that made sense to me. So I decided to get online with their chat. This is the conversation that took place:

Please wait for an agent to respond.
You are now chatting with 'Gino' In order to assist you today, please verify your First and Last Name.
you: Hi, My name is * *
Gino: Thank you, how can I help you today?
you: The account is under my husband *
you: I have a question - what does it mean when it says "return - frozen" next to last month's payment?
Gino: You will need to call your bank regarding that
you: it cleared my bank, what i'm looking for is whether or not Santander has acknowledged receiving the payment.
Gino: Last payment received was on 09/18
you: right
you: and next to it it says "return - frozen" and this month it says we owe an extra $25. What would that be for?
Gino: it was an nsf, you need to call your bank
you: it was NOT an NSF. It cleared the bank first try on the 20th. I'm looking at my bank statement online right now.
Gino: ACH and Check payments are automatically resubmitted up to two additional times if funds are initially unavailable.
Gino: Please do not attempt to replace a payment unless you have verified that the resubmission process is complete.
Gino: Goodbye. Thank you for chatting with us. We value your feedback. Please click the Close button at top right to answer a few questions about your experience with us today. To ensure Santander Consumer USA has accurate contact information please update your home address, home, work and cell phone numbers on the My Account home page before logging out.
Chat session has been terminated by the site agent.

The last 3 responses from "Gino" came almost all at once (cut and paste) and then "Chat session has been terminated by the site agent" appeared immediately below it. He basically disconnected before I could read what he had said, in order to be sure I couldn't ask any further questions. How's that for service?

So I double check with my bank, just to be 100% sure. We have never had an NSF fee on this account. Surely the bank (which is actually a credit union) would have notified us of a problem? I spoke with someone from the bank and she looked it all over and assured me they only tried to process once and it had been approved and cleared with no issues.

So I get on the phone now with Santander. I get a lady on the line who calls herself "LaToya." I'm sorry, if you're not a Jackson I'm having a hard time believing this. And she sounded like she was Indian, which I have no problem with as I have several Indian friends, but I'm pretty sure none of them are named LaToya. But whatever.

I ask her what the fee is for, and like "Gino" she tells me it's an NSF because the bank turned down the payment when they tried to process it. I assured her I had already spoken with the bank and they told me that was not the case. I asked how we resolve the issue and she put me on hold, came back with a fax number to send to the attention of the "ASU department."

I sent them a cover letter stating the entire situation, a copy of the statement the bank sent as well as a page from our bank's onine banking with some notes added.

I would normally find this to be an irritating situation to have to deal with, but not the end of the world. But after all the horror stories I have read online (on this site and elsewhere) since this morning I'm afraid it might be the beginning of a nightmare with these people. I was told they will not take the $25 fee in addition to the regular payment we signed up for because the auto pay was approved for the monthly payment amount only, but I don't really trust that. I'm somewhat sure I'll see the amount taken out in a few days to include the extra $25 as our statement shows that as the amount due this month. But of course I don't know.

My biggest problem though is worrying about the future. The mature date on the loan is next June. When Santander took over the loan it was current but we had deferred payments in the past with CitiFinancial, who assured us they would work with us to keep a balloon payment from being due at the end, stretching out the loan to let us continue to make regular payments until it's paid off. I get the feeling come next June Santander is going to want the balance, no exceptions, to the tune of a couple thousand dollars we won't have.

Thought I should continue to document so I will add what happened today.

Logged into the account, just to check on it. Thought it was wise to keep tabs on these people. First thing I notice, it says "your account is 1 day delinquent."

I signed up for auto pay! So I decide to do another online chat. I'm told by "Terri" the auto pay was disabled on 9/24. Because they attempted to take not one, but two payments last month and one was declined. (He/she also tells me that's what the $25 fee is for.)

First off, there is no way they should have attempted to take a second payment last month. Based on the conversation I had with my bank there is no proof there was more than one attempt made, so I think that's a flat out lie. I asked why I got no notification of this. Nothing by email or snail mail. When I updated the account information (they didn't have our insurance for some reason) I got not one but 2 emails thanking me for updating the account.

They are also asking for references. As if I want to subject my friends and family to these people for no reason. If we are such a risk maybe they shouldn't have purchased the loan! We didn't ask to do business with these people.

So our account is 1 day late. And there is no way to make this payment without paying a fee and because it's now late there will be a late fee as well. I was so sick to my stomach I didn't even bother to ask how much that was, but I know there is one.

My husband has asked me to do more research and possibly contact a lawyer.

So the following night my husband and I decided together to call them up together. To sum it up, we (or he, as he did most of the talking) was repeatedly told they did nothing wrong, the system shuts off auto pay if a payment fails, and that we "froze" the account, not them. I think with their lack of English skills what they were getting at there is that they attempted to draw funds off of a closed bank account, and instead of closed, they kept saying the account was frozen.

The second payment thing was clarified, but just says to me even more so that they are in the wrong. The two payments were drawn (or attempted to be drawn) out of two separate accounts. Shortly before we were aware CitiFi was going to sell the loan to Santander, we switched from a bank to a credit union. We had auto pay with our old bank account set up with CitiFi. The last auto pay made out of the account was in July. Early in July I received an email stating that they were changing their system (this has to be because of Santander buying them out, although of course at the time they didn't say that) so the auto pay had to be reauthorized. The July payment would go automatically, but any further payments would not be drawn unless we resigned up for autopay with their new system.

The timing was perfect as we were making the banking switch, so I thought I would let the auto pay with CitiFi expire, and set it up again once the new bank account had my husband's paycheck directly deposited. His employer had a form he filled out and it said the switch could take 2-4 paychecks to make the change. So at the time I didn't know what account we would be using for the August payment, so I elected not to sign up for the new auto pay right away, but make the payment manually until the banking switch was complete. That was I was in control of what money comes out of where (or so I thought).

True to CitiFi's word (we never had problems with them) the auto pay went in July but not in August. I logged into their website for the August payment and paid it the day it was due, for free, through their system. There was no auto pay in place with CitFinancial.

Then the letter comes saying CitiFi has sold the loan to Santander. Santander gave payment options in the letter. and autopay was the only free one that would assure the payment was there on time. So I went to their website and signed up for auto pay using our new banking account, because by then that was the one we were using for everything. Had that not been the case, I would have paid the $10.95 fee the one time in order to continue to make manual payments from the old account until the switch. But the direct deposit had come through the previous pay period, so I signed up for their auto pay and provided them with our new banking information.

This is where the problem comes in: Santander claims the second payment was pulled because we had an auto pay arrangement from CitiFinancial that rolled over to them, so they automatically ran that payment as well as the one I set up. Both being automated I get how that could happen. The problem is that NO ONE had any authorization to run the one fron CitiFi, as it was expired, per the emails (several, in fact) that they sent out telling me the auto pay was going to expire unless I authorized it again. Which I never did, because of the timing of us switching banks at the same time. However, they continued to insist it was our fault, because the information came to them through CitiFinancial and we failed to tell them we no longer had that bank account. What does it matter if you aren't authorized to draw funds from it? CitiFi had that banking information stored for years when I made payments manually, and they never attempted to take money without permission. I don't have to tell everyone we've ever done business with that we closed a bank account, just in case they want to try to take money out of the account without our permission!

Fortunately the old account was closed by the time they attempted this unathorized draw or it probably could have been messier with real NSF fees from that bank account. What Santander still doesn't get is that they weren't authorized to take that money. They claim it rolled over from CitiFinancial, but since Citi told me it had expired (and the last payment to them was not auto pay) I stand by the fact that that payment should never have been drafted. This is what resulted in the $25 fee and the drop of our current auto pay with them.

The fax we sent on Monday, that "LaToya" claimed would take 24-72 hours to review on Monday, has turned into 5-7 business days by the time we talked to "Shawnique" on Wednesday evening. We told her we would mail a payment, now that the payment was late thanks to them shutting off the auto pay and not telling us, and after being told if we made a payment with her or online the $10.95 fee they charge to do so would not be reversed, regardless of the circumstances. Since I believe that's true, I would rather have heard that then be lied to and led to think that once they resolve the $25 fee issue (which I don't really think they will admit to wrongdoing) they would return that too, because that would be a separate fight.

The following day, my husband said "forget it, let's be done with it. Better to swallow a $10 fee than to have them take back the car over such a petty amount." I agreed but disagreed. We certainly don't want to lose the vehicle over such a small amount of money. At the same time, it's the principle of the matter and if they do this to everyone (remember, $3.2 billion in loans from CitiFi alone they recently bought out) that'e a heck of a lot of extra cash they shouldn't get.

So I made the payment online. $243.66. Last month they took $38.97 in interest and the rest was applied to the principal. This month I paid $254.61. They put $140.40 towards the principal, $78.26 towards interest (more than twice for interest than last month, how are they figuring this?), $10.95 for the fee AND $25 towards the misc fee for the NSF that we shouldn't have to pay in the first place.

Now we have to wait and see if they really do resolve the $25 issue with the imaginary NSF.

We understand your situation as our account was taken over by Santander from Citi when they took it over we had a balance of 3, 836.00 because my husband supposedly deferred several payments to the end of our loan, Santander took over the account in September they sent us a letter stating that along with a statement the first and only statement we have ever received to this date we were paying Citi a payment of $404.00 a which we continued to send in to Santander. Each time we spoke to a rep. of Santander they always told us something different after each payment our balance seem to be steadily increasing instead of decreasing I ask them whats happening with our payments are they being added to the account at all their reply was yes but interest and fees were being added do to the fact our account were supposed to be matured, I ask them well can we get some type of statement or document showing our payments and our pay-off the rep replied well maam we donot send out statements or any kind of documents once your loan have matured, I was speechless because I never heard such thing. from the time they took over our account we sent in at least 5 payments of $400.00, (due the calculation) thats in a 2 months period and they continue to telling us our pay-off is over $2, 000.00 which would mean they are getting at least close to $5, 000.00 more from us which means we have paid over $21, 000.00 for a $14, 000.00 car thats now only worth $4, 000.00 book value. It doesn't do any good to contact them or to argue with or try to tell them what you know is not right because they don't hear it they just do whatever they want to and tell you anything over the phone just to get rid of you and the next time you talk to them it will start all over again, worst nightmare isn't the name for this company its even worse than your worse nightmare .

santander

Santander took over my CitiFinancial Auto Loan, and immediately made a claim that I am one month behind. This is an absolute untruth. I have my statements, but they are saying I am, and cannot pinpoint where. They are telling me to look at my payment history, and figure it out myself.

They are doing the same to me, except I have two statements from them in a row, one of which says no balance past due, and the other which shows a month past due, AND shows the last month's payment made. So, its an impossibility. And worse, the car is paid off, which they also don't acknowledge. Dealing with their customer service is infuriating; they are absolutely useless.

They made payment arrangement with me saying I was past due. I remember paying but I can't find the payment since I did it over the phone with Citi before Santander took over. I had good and bad experience with CSRs and most were bad. I had one lady scream at me and cuss me out and another who was nice but didn't know what she was doing. All of them lied saying I can only send payment via Money Gram but I kept calling back and finally found a person with some sense in his head. He took a check by phone and everything was clear after. That lasted for 2 days then they started the harassing calls saying I was 3 months past due. I had JUST paid everything up to current (couldn't pay during the transition from Citi to Santander aka satan) and they were saying I was lying and explaining if I didn't pay today that my car would be repo'ed. I feel horrible because my grandfather co-signed to help me while I was in school to get a lower rate. This company has messed his credit up so bad his score drop from 725 to 660 because they reported my car repo'ed when it is in my gated drive way. They even sent repo guys to my house around midnight (law here say no one can come after 8pm-7am) and woke my grandfather up. My grandfather told them it is in the back yard locked up and they better get off the property before he calls the cops. He told them the car was paid current and they have no right to be here at 11:57pm ringing our door bell. They left without a problem but the endless harassment from this company is a nightmare. I am refinancing and going to my state's attorney general Greg Abbot to complain. THIS MUST STOP. I have over 200 voice mails from them in 5 week period. That is harassment in my state and I have notified them they CANNOT call me anymore yet they still do.

I have all the money order recepits to prove that I am not behind on the truck payment.I get numerous calls all times of the day and night. I pay it every week.I almost lost my job because of all the phone calls. The customer service sucks, one hand don't know what the other is doing.I don't even get forty hours a week on my paycheck, we had our hours cut back 2 years ago. I do the best I can.Does anyone else out there have the same problem as me?There isn't a number on the statement to talk to a real person, only suggest to go on the website to find out information.Is there anyone out there that can help get this squared away?I sent a message to the company with a name and phone number to get in contact with.Waiting on responce.

billing and website issues

I have a problem with accessing the website seems like every month whenever I need to make a payment. You enter your user name and password hundreds of times and nothing. I know that what I'm entering is correct. It doesn't tell you that it's not, that the combination is incorrect, try back later or anything. They also don't give you the option to cancel a scheduled payment like most other companies. I needed to re date a payment that wasn't even due yet and was told by a supervisor that it had already been processed so they couldn't help. There was no way that the payment couldn't have been processed that quick and for several days out. This is a very deceptive company.

If you ever get the change to refinance with another company, you had better run dont walk to sign with someone else.Their web site, i believe is rigged so you cannot sign on no matter how many times you call them to reset.The federal trade com. should look into this company.

overcharged

hia, I dont want to be to quick on the uptake, but, as I pay and go with a santander store card, I have been right up to date with all payments, as having debt already, I need to keep a very careful eye on my accounts. anyhow, after going through my bank statements and purchases, I notice I have been charged twice on one two items. I phoned up the customer services and paid 8 pounds to find nothing out, I will now have to write, I guess, to find out what to do. I am writing this as a possible warning, if that counts for anything. thank you for posting your complaints as well. p.s. get the customer services assessed.

Id like to hear more details. Did they list this loan twice on your credit? It should only show once and if its on thir twice they need to remove it. Did you pay triad/Santander on time? Did you miss payments? If you defaulted on the contract they can reposess the car legally and they can use your credit report information to locate you...it's called skip tracing in the collections world. I do not believe wage garnishment is allowed in California so that is an empty threat...if a collection agency had said that you would have them over a barrel but as a first party collector they can say it.

I found out that Santander bought out Citifinancial auto loans and at that point I phoned in to request a buy out offer from them, submitted the amount over night, they released the title within approx. 10 business days. A couple of weeks afterwards I get a phone call stating that I have an additional balance on the account. WHAT???? $162.70 good thru 11/4/10.It wasn't enough that I sent them several thousand dollars. Are they insane or what??? The buy out total meant just that! Why are they trying to squeeze more monies out of me. I owe NOTHING and I'm so happy that I DO NOT have to do business with them. This nickle and dimming people to death has to STOP! They are not organized at all. A company who practices business the way that they do should not EXIST!!! DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH SANDTANDER... You'll be SORRY! This should be their slogan.

We financed our vehicle through Drive Financial. Like many other people here, there were no problems. Then, about one year into it, we were advised that our loan was sold to Santander Consumer Finance.

In March of last year, my wife was badly hurt at work. Hurt so bad I had to quit my job to see about her. Things were tight, but we still were able to pay the truck note. We went without eating several times, just to make the note. Eventually, I was able to work again, after I had moved by family who helped take care of my wife. Then, my wife's company cut off her work comp. payments, and we had to start the long process of a law suit.

We were left with just my paycheck. By this time, we had over two years of perfect payments, not even One late payment. But, we had fallen desperatly behind. They did work with us at first, but all downhill from there!

They gave us a deferrment and moved the late fees and penalties to the back of the loan and gave us until the next due date to make another payment. I was able to pay the next payment. It looked like we were getting back on track.

But not so fast-

I had a cut in pay, and told them I would be a little late on my next payment, but I could make it if I had a little lee-way. They said it was not possible. I asked if I could have one more deferrment. They said I just had one and was required to make at least one payment to qualify for another one. When I told them that I had made a payment, they told me I was lieing.

When I finally proved it to them, they said I still ahd to make one more payment to qualify for deferrment. I borrowed Money from family and made one more payment. Then they told me that I couldn't get a deferrment for another six months. And they said I owed interest on it, by the day.

By the next payment date, I was able to pay the regular note of $454.00. They said they wouldn't take it. They said I owed too much interest and that I needed to pay at least $800.00 and THEN the $454.00. I told them I wouldn't.

They called every hour every day for weeks. Finally, they made me an offer.

They said if I just pay a regular note, it would put all the interest on hold until the next pay date, which would give me time to raise the money.

I gave them the note. The next day, they called me and wanted money. I told them what was discussed. They said whoever made that "deal with you, lied to you. And now your interest is $2, 010.00"

Every time I call them, they lie to me. I give them money, and they call and want more.

Today, the truck was repossed while I was at someone's house! They pulled up right after me and hooked up.

I asked him to show me his papers stating he had the right to repossed, all he showed me was his IPHONE. And wouldn't let me read it.

Well where do I begin, my car was finance with city-financal auto. About April or May i called them to find out the pay-off on my car they told me and we was working out the plans on my car. I went to call them again to find out for sure how much and how i go about to pay it off and i was redirected to SANTANDER CONSUMER, that is were it all began. They cold not get there facts, paper work, nor any conversation we had together. I would talk to three different people everytime I called. they would call me all hours of the day and night. Well I made all my payments as I told them I would. They tried to say
I was 95 days past due and I wasn't. yes my car was to be paid off in september and i could not pay it in full so I was to be getting a mature ammendment loan, everytime i called they had is sent i would wait 3-5 days and nothing call them back and get told the same thing. It comes down to when they came and got my car, they had all the payments, and they came and got my car. when my husband talk to them the day they was here to get it they said they did not have my payment. After they left come to find out by my bank they had it. I went ahead to pay my car completly off and get it back and they said i could not have it back, I had to pay an additional $400.00 to get it WRONG I just paid every penny i owed on that car. needless to say i did get it back and did not have to pay the additional money. But just to say I WILL NEVER USE THEM IN MY LIFETIME. they can not get any of there stuff together, and they are some rude people to talk to and work with.

double billed - no refund so far

Santander Consumer USA recently took over loans/payments for CitiFinancial Auto who my original loan was through. Upon being notified by CitiFinancial about this change, I contacted Santander Consumer USA to get some more information. Specifically I asked them if my current payment arrangements with CitiFinancial would remain in place. That is, the automatic monthly draft that I had setup with CitiFinancial. The representative from Santander told me that no, the payments would not automatically carry over to them and that I needed to setup a one time payment for September and then schedule future auto drafts through the Santander website. When the time came for my payment to be made, I discovered that my previous payment arrangement with CitiFinancial was still in tact and had been transferred to Santander. So, Santander auto drafted my bank account (they said they wouldn't, which is why I needed to schedule a one time payment). So basically I have been charged twice. That's just shy of $400 missing from my checking account that they had no business taking out. Money that I need for things like gas and groceries. When I originally called, I was told that I needed to fax them a copy of my bank statement to "prove that I was overcharged'. First of all, why the hell do I need to"prove" it? Shouldn't they have records that show that they received two payments from me? I cannot believe they have the nerve to request personal, private documents from me because of their screw up. I am still waiting on the money to show back up in my account. I cannot believe the complete and total lack of consideration for the effect this has on me financially. $400 might not be a lot of money to be missing for some people but it is for me.

One positive note. I called them back after the first rep told me I needed to fax my bank statements. I was hoping for a different rep that would be willing to be a little more proactive. I ended up with a very nice lady who, upon placing me on hold, contacted their accounting department. She was able to verify with them that they did in fact receive two payments last month from me. She promised that the money would be refunded as soon as possible. I am hoping to receive it in the next 24-48 hours. I will follow up on this to let everyone know the result.

Same situation with my loan. Normally my checking would have been $359.74 lighter on the 5th of the month. After finally getting through their automated system to a human being after several hours (expensive on a cell phone) I was told the same crap. Frustrated and fed up I PAID THE CAR OFF. Over $3000 had to be taken in two over the phone authorizations to clear out the loan. Did this on the 10th of September. Have the letters to prove it. Didn't receive the title in the mail until the 15th of October! Then on the 12th of September, they took ANOTHER $359.74 out of my checking! After the loan was PAID IN FULL!!! IDIOTS! Got the same run around about faxing in my bank statements. Did this, have yet to get even the slightest response. That was over two weeks ago. Good luck, I'll be calling them again this week to try to get this resolved, but I will NEVER do business with these jerks again!

Same situation here, never heard of these jerks before! I have to thank Citifinancial for screwing this up for me! These people double billed my account this month, and of course they need to see bank statements, they are so incompetent I am afraid to send in my bank statements because they might do something illegal with those! Of course I know the money is as good as gone, I'm just afraid they will do this again!

I had them take over my loan from HSBC in April of 2010. the first payment I made over their web page double billed me. I called them to try to work something out and either cancel or get a refund so I could get grocery money, and they were completely obstinate about it. They claimed that I had entered 2 payments of $500 each at both 5:08pm and 5:26pm. I asked them why would I schedule 2 payments within 18 minutes of each other for the exact same amount to be taken out the same day? They wouldn't hear anything else about it. I mentioned that I would contest the transaction with my bank, and she said "a bounced transaction can lead to repossession of your vehicle even if the payments are up to date, and it will incur an additional $350 charge for the bounced transaction." She basically said if I disputed the charge, they'd repossess my car. The woman actually hung up on my when I asked for a supervisor. The same thing happened again the following February (a week and a day ago as of this note) with a slightly smaller payment. They were exactly as obstinate about it the second time around.

I filed a complaint with the BBB and am filing a small claims suit for the overdraft fees they incurred. I'm also going to spread as many complaints about them in as many places as I can.

I have been dealing with Santander's wrongful doing for three years and I even went as far as going to local news Fox 5 atlanta but they didn't want to say or do anything about it . So that it got to the point where I had my car packed for a trip out of town for a funeral with clothes and even had my cancer meds. in the car . Guess what happened they stole my car and now they are destroing my credit rating with their slander marks against me .I believe that they are owned by someone in a government office that is why they are still in bussiness with all the complaint's they have against them in almost every state in the usa . It's almost like the president himself ownes them he is the only person that has the power to overlook that many complaints . everyone was to join together and file a class a lawsuit against them would be the best thing to do at least it might get them exsposed for being the crooks they are.

HSBC sold my car not to Santander. My original loan was finance for 6 years. The car should be paid off bu they have a balance of $6, 000 + dollars. I recently talked to one of their reps who told me that after the 10 day grace period they charge a daily late fee so that is why my balance is so high. He said to me that no one ever told you about this policy. THIS IS A RIP OFF AND FRAUD!!! At the most is should only be approximately $1, 000. They said all the car finance companies charge a daily fee. THIS IS NOT TURE. I never heard of this company so not I am trying to get this all straighten out with the help of my credit union. At this point, this car will never be paid off. I am so angry. I will also file a complaint with BBB, Consume Fraud and anyone else also. These people operate like loan sharks. jdh

SANTANDER, THE BANK WITH A SYSTEMIC PROBLEM AND AN "WE DON'T GIVE A SH$%^ ATTIDUDE.

My bank name was Sovereign Bank in Brooklyn, NY and one day I went into my local branch only to find out that it had acquired a different
name- Santander Bank. Right away I started having problems with the bank under this name. Whether it was with a representative telling me that I had to wait 5 days to use cash put through an ATM at their own local branch or with the bank claiming that they had sent me a new card which they never did, the problems were constant.

The last problem involved using the new debit card that I had asked them to send me to replace the one that they claimed to have sent out.
I activated the card and transferred all my on-lines accounts such as amazon.com, google.com, ebay.com, macy.com, overstock.com and several other accounts to the new card. They insist that I had to start using the new activated card immediately, but when I started using it at local stores it was declined as either debit or credit.

I called them and explained the problem to them when a representative who was not sure that she had solved the problem, tells me that the card was declined because I had entered the pin incorrectly five times. Of course, that claimed was wrong and it is unbelievable that they have that information in their system when that never happened.

This bank will soon discovered one thing: A bad reputation as a banking institution can undo whatever positive history the bank had accumulated. Banking institutions are powerful, but they can not afford to be so careless in this age of the Internet where everyone has access information about a business' stupid and incompetent management.

SANTANDER, THE BANK WITH A SYSTEMIC PROBLEM AND AN "WE DON'T GIVE A SH$%^ ATTITUDE.

My bank name was Sovereign Bank in Brooklyn, NY and one day I went into my local branch only to find out that it had acquired a different name- Santander Bank. Right away I started having problems with the bank under this name. Whether it was with a representative telling me that I had to wait 5 days to use cash deposited through an ATM at their own local branch or with the bank claiming that they had sent me a new card which they never did, the problems were constant.

The last problem involved using the new debit card that I had asked them to send me to replace the one that they claimed to have sent out to me. I activated the card and transferred all my on-lines accounts such as amazon.com, google.com, ebay.com, macy.com, overstock.com and several other accounts to the new card. They insisted that I had to start using the new activated card immediately, but when I started using it at local stores it was declined as either debit or credit.

I called them and explained the problem to them when a representative who was not sure that she had solved the problem, tells me that the card was declined because I had entered the pin incorrectly five times. Of course, that claim was wrong and it is unbelievable that they have that information in their system when that never happened.

This bank will soon discovered one thing: A bad reputation as a banking institution can undo whatever positive history the bank had accumulated. Banking institutions are powerful, but they can not afford to be so careless in this age of the Internet where everyone has access to information about a business' stupid and incompetent management.